The Top Pot Doughnut 5k Dash occurred this past Sunday, April 27th, 2014. While I was not planning on running a 5k, or any other events in between my three triathlon races, I can not say no to doughnuts. So at the last minute I adjusted my schedule to incorporate the run. (Really all I had to do was flip my Saturday and Sunday workouts because my schedule has me run on Saturdays and bike on Sundays; easy switch.)
Here is a photo of three doughnut lovers pre-race; Happy and eager for the promised doughnuts at the end.
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| One day my selfie skills will improve |
The official start time was at 8:30 a.m. and while it did not rain there was a good breeze, which would switch our weather from sunny to cloudy.
Normally I hate any type of wind but the breeze gave a slight chill to the morning, unintentionally making you run in place and resulting in a nice warm-up.
The event set-up was nice. Looking at the picture on the left, to the right of the runners are all the booths with food and non-food being alternated in order to prevent crowding. And of course, the ultimate Top Pot Doughnut silver streamliner was at the very end of the booth row.
Once you ran through and out of the starting shoot the route turned right and had you go clockwise around Greenlake. Having ran around Greenlake a month ago for the tri, it felt a little funny to run in the opposite direction and on the road. A perk to being in a popular event is the amount of sectioned-off space for the participants.
Here the route is taking us from the street to the paved path around the lake. This 30 yard stretch of trail terrain was quite enjoyable. A nice thing about being in a race with a route that you've done before is that you can pace yourself quite well. I tend to always get caught up in beginning of the race pace and everyone wanting to go at full-speed. This time however, I felt that I went at my own pace from the beginning, and I'm going to thank swimming for that. Since all my swim practice is in a lap lane, and there's almost always someone in the next lane, I quickly learned to ignore people and do my own thing.
I am happy with my overall performance as I have always been more of a jogger than a runner. My run practices lately have been focused more on increasing my pace than anything else. Here are my results:
Normally I hate any type of wind but the breeze gave a slight chill to the morning, unintentionally making you run in place and resulting in a nice warm-up.
The event set-up was nice. Looking at the picture on the left, to the right of the runners are all the booths with food and non-food being alternated in order to prevent crowding. And of course, the ultimate Top Pot Doughnut silver streamliner was at the very end of the booth row.
Once you ran through and out of the starting shoot the route turned right and had you go clockwise around Greenlake. Having ran around Greenlake a month ago for the tri, it felt a little funny to run in the opposite direction and on the road. A perk to being in a popular event is the amount of sectioned-off space for the participants.
Time - 29:11
Pace - 9:24
Division Placement - 55th, out of 204
*Side note: I got to test the Nike+ app (for the first time) with the races timing chip. The stats above are from the chip and my Nike+ time was 29:18, with a pace of 9:26. While I never doubted the app, it still is reassuring.
Of course, you can not forget why you would run the Top Pot 5k in the first place; Fun and Doughnuts.
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